Risk for Girls’ Delinquency: Early Intervention to Promote Healthy Development

Engendering the Evidence Base: A Critical Review of the Conceptual and Empirical Foundations of Gender-Responsive Interventions for Girls’ Delinquency

“…In an outcome study utilizing random assignment to treatment versus wait-list conditions for a sample of early-onset aggressive girls, girls in the treatment group showed significant levels of improvement in their problem behaviors, and their parents reported improved parenting skills [111]. In a subsequent report, Rubin-Vaughn, Pepler, Walsh, Levene and Yuille [165] followed 80 families in their original evaluation group over the course of four years following treatment and found that, despite expected spikes in problem behavior around puberty, the intervention was associated with downward shifts in the trajectories of girls' internalizing and externalizing symptoms.…”

“…Although not included in the GSC review [25], Stop-Now-And-Plan Girls Connection (SNAP® GC; Child Development Institute, 2007) is an early preventative intervention for aggressive preadolescent girls who may be at risk for delinquency. SNAP® GC is based on cognitive-behavioral principles and designed to teach effective self-control and social problem solving to girls and their caregivers [165]. In keeping with the intervention's goal of helping girls avoid incarceration, the majority of the girls engaged in this intervention are not yet involved in the juvenile justice system; nonetheless, a small proportion have already been involved with the legal system by age 12.…”

“…Interestingly, as with the developers of MTFC, the originators of SNAP® GC were inspired to create an adaptation specifically for girls after observing that girls not only did not achieve gains, but experienced negative outcomes, including increased aggression and treatment drop-out, after participation in a "gender-neutral" family treatment for antisocial behavior. Therefore, based on a developmental contextual perspective, SNAP® GC was created to focus on the risk and protective factors that are specific to aggressive girls [165]. As the authors note, whereas early in development, girls and boys share similar risks that contribute to aggression and those exposed to such risks have similar outcomes in childhood, these patterns diverge as boys and girls move through adolescence, suggesting that girls have different intervention needs [166].…”